Highly toxic PCB waste from former U.S. military facilities in Okinawa will be disposed of in the 3.11 disaster-hit prefecture of Fukushima, Akahata reported on September 23. Citizens are raising voices of protest against the plan.

On behalf of the U.S. Forces Japan, the Japanese government has awarded a private company in Fukushima a contract for the disposal of 322 tons of PCB contaminated sludge from sewage treatment plants at former U.S. military facilities in Okinawa. The contract is valued at 395 million yen.

“It is unacceptable for the national government to allow the highly toxic material disposed in Fukushima without obtaining local consent while the prefecture is still suffering from radioactive contamination due to the nuclear accident two years ago,” a local citizen said.

The manufacture and use of PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) have been banned since 1972. Disposing of PCB has been extremely difficult due to technological constraints.

[…]
Some argue that the U.S. should be held responsible for contamination caused by its military bases. However, as Washington claims that it has no obligation to restore the environment of its military sites to their original condition, Tokyo is disposing the PCB wastes at its own expense.

Subscribe

About

The Atomic Age is an ongoing project that aims to cultivate critical and reflective intervention regarding nuclear power and weapons. We provide daily news updates on the issues of nuclear energy and weapons, primarily though not exclusively in English and Japanese via RSS, Twitter, and Facebook. If you would like to receive updates in English only, subscribe to this RSS.

Choose Language / 言語

Additional Notes / 謝辞

The artwork in the header, titled "JAPAN:Nuclear Power Plant," is copyright artist Tomiyama Taeko.

The photograph in the sidebar, of a nuclear power plant in Byron, Illinois, is copyright photographer Joseph Pobereskin (http://pobereskin.com/)

This website was designed by the Center for East Asian Studies, the University of Chicago, and is administered by Masaki Matsumoto, Graduate Student in the Masters of Arts Program for the Social Sciences, the University of Chicago.

Contact / 連絡先

If you have any questions, please contact the Center for East Asian Studies, the University of Chicago at 773-702-2715 or japanatchicago@uchicago.edu.